Yoko Ono

Few figures in pop music are as divisive as Japanese-American artist, musician and political activist Yoko Ono, whose legacy is inexorably tied to her assassinated third husband, John Lennon, and the demise of Lennon's legendary band, the Beatles. The daughter of prominent Japanese bankers, Ono entered the New York art scene in the early '60s with a collective of neo-Dadaists called Fluxus. After a pair of unsuccessful marriages, Ono met Lennon at one of her art shows in London in 1966. They collaborated on experimental recordings in 1968 and were married in 1969. After the Beatles broke up in 1970, the couple released Yoko Ono/The Plastic Ono Band and John Lennon/The Plastic Ono Band, records that merged Lennon's pop songs with Ono's piercing, avant-garde noise rock. Ono released numerous records through the '70s and '80s, though had a long period of dormancy following Lennon's death in 1980. She has remained politically engaged throughout her career and currently oversees an award for artists from regions of conflict. She currently lives in New York City. Her child with John Lennon, Sean Lennon, is also a musician.